Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2016 09:28:38 -0600
From: Michael Offutt
Subject: Chapter 12-The Orb of Winter-Gay Science Fiction
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*****
Chapter Twelve
A cold gust of wind from off the balcony caught Alexi taking a break
from studying for his final examinations. He looked up from the mahogany
writing desk, put away his ink quill, and contemplated the ceiling
ensorcelled with an illusion that always showed the exact opposite of the
current season. Outside there was winter, but in here the ceiling showed
blue skies and a green canopy of oak tree limbs spreading in the
sunlight. Birds flitted here and there, all without sound of course, and
the occasional white cloud scudded across the horizon.
Ten writing desks with gilt bronze and wood marquetry stood in the room,
each stacked with old books that held gilded pages smashed between
rectangular plates of bound leather. Students sat at each, scribbling away
on parchment, working out the formulae that might appear on their
graduation tests. Checking the water clock in the schoolyard, he noted that
he had a few hours before sunset. Because the clouds outside threatened
snow, Alexi dressed warmly in a fur cloak and hood. Underneath he wore a
yellow bodice, laced in front, and a double layer skirt of purple and
blue. He took with him the small box containing a piece of Abyssal
stone. To his knowledge, professor Hepsibah failed to notice its absence.
Alexi descended a flight of steps and noticed guards from the Blades
Acuuarum stationed at the gate, checking all those coming and going into
the city. Alexi listened for a moment to hear what the teenaged boys said,
as they harassed a small group of girls headed for the cemetery to practice
their craft.
"We can't let you out of the school, ladies," one declared, his voice
familiar. It was Dudley. He flashed the group of girls a greasy smile and
they all giggled and fanned themselves furiously. He'd gotten so cocky
dating Rowena because she polished his knob on a daily basis. Yet Rowena
held off on fucking him for reasons obvious to Alexi.
That conversation is going to go poorly, Alexi thought. But he had to
admit, even in the harsh light of winter Dudley looked attractive. This was
especially true today since Dudley's mustache and beard looked nicely
trimmed.
Too bad it's all cosmetic, Alexi thought. He can't even read. He's a
bully so people won't see how stupid he is.
"We're just going up the hill to the cemetery," a girl named Bethany
said. Alexi admired how her eyes seemed to capture the sun beams and
reflect yellow. Alexi loved the color yellow.
"You've got to let us pass," Felicity said, twirling one strand of her
metallic blue hair around a finger.
One of Dudley's friends, an overweight warrior with ginger dreadlocks
and rolls of suet, leaned on a spear. "Now lass," he said, "Don't make us
get cross with you. We said you can't leave. It's by order of the
headmaster. There's trouble in the city what with an Abaddon demon on the
loose. We need you here where we can protect you in case it dares to show
its head. We'll skewer that bastard before it even gets through the gate."
He smiled and looked over Felicity's ample bosom. "As a matter of fact, you
should stay here by my side and keep me company. We can get to know one
another." The other boys laughed.
"What's your name, soldier?" Felicity asked.
"Harold," the ginger replied. He gave her a wink.
Alexi frowned and headed back into the school, his cloak sweeping the
granite floor and scattering fall leaves that the wind had pushed under the
staircase. The sound of giggling followed him into the hallway where the
classrooms devoted to the study of Vitalum Vitalis were held. He jostled
past several doors just as the professors let their students out for the
day. The corridors quickly filled with the daughters of necromancy
representing all seven years taught at the academy. It was during these
times that Alexi felt eyes on him. The feeling had plagued him for almost a
full day now, ever since he and Daphne returned from Slippery Squib and
that ominous event at the Obelisk of Quiet.
Who's watching me? Alexi scanned the corridor, keeping his hood close to
his delicate chin. But all he saw was a sea of girls looking back at him,
some sullen and others laughing because it was lunchtime and the cafeteria
would be packed with delicious food.
He turned to the right and headed toward the library. Cast iron
chandeliers thick with tallow candles sweated saffron light. The darkly
seasoned oak ceilings had many burn marks, and the granite walls flitted
with cobwebs. He passed several professors talking in the halls, all of
them wore the school colors of black and white. Alexi paid them no heed,
listening to the "clop clop" the heels of his shoes made, somewhat muffled
by the sweep of his skirt.
He reached the far end of the west wing that marked the boundary of the
places academy girls were allowed to go. Alexi sometimes came here to read
in the sun room. Thick green hedges whose tops were white with snow grew
beyond the frosted glass, held within ironwork pillars that soared to a
conical roof where the three suns shone brightly above the clouds. Inside
this oasis some gardener had created a makeshift arboretum. Here and there
sat reclining chairs, and tables with books on them. An old cup and saucer
still here from his last visit held decomposing tea leaves in the
bottom. The babble of water from a statue devoted to the water goddess and
seven sea nymphs stood beyond the edge of a garden box where a massive
indoor palm tree and ferns took root.
Alexi's eyes searched the granite walls to the west. There, behind thick
vines, was an old rusty door. Beyond it lay the cold, deserted halls
belonging to a vast complex of ancient ruins left over from when this place
functioned as a palace before the events now called the Red Revolution and
the shift of Zanda to a theocracy.
This is how I get to the Hollows, he thought.
Alexi crossed the stone floor quickly, checking to the left and right,
and into nooks and crannies to make sure no one was here studying or even
snogging with a boy brought here illegally. Sometimes, Grimmet, the
janitor, spent a few hours sweeping the sun room floor while drinking
lightly from a liquor flask. Alexi suspected he did so to escape the
ever-watchful eye of the school administration.
When he reached the iron door, Alexi realized he'd have to pull the
vines out of the way. He jerked on the thick green cords, tugging as hard
as he could, and he only managed to cut his hands open on the wooden spurs.
"Dammit," he swore. He pressed a handkerchief to his smooth, baby soft
palms.
Alexi frowned and stared at the impossible vines and cursed his weak
body. Dudley would have just yanked these weeds out of the way in
seconds. His anger and frustration welled up inside him and awoke Drago,
the knot inside Alexi's guts, and the pain doubled him over.
I can't cry out, he thought. Someone might hear me. Warm tears fell from
his cheeks.
Coughing, he managed to straighten and then raised his hands before the
defiant plant. "Interficiem koro," he uttered, eyes blazing red with
necromantic power.
Before his outstretched fingers, the leaves turned black, the vine
withered, and the whole plant turned to ashes.
Alexi caught his breath and stepped back from the door. He knew his
power grew on almost a daily basis, but this last effort hardly winded him
at all. "That shouldn't have worked as well as it did," Alexi uttered to no
one. Then his eyes fell to the lock. The same enchantment should
technically work on iron, as the necromancy he'd just used reduced things
to their ultimate end.
He swallowed, held his hand over the iron padlock, and felt the power
from Drago filling his flesh. It raised goose pimples on his hairless
skin. "Interficiem koro," he said again. Red splotches of rust appeared on
the iron padlock and they spread rapidly. Soon the thing weakened, and it
eventually fell of its own weight onto the floor where it continued to fall
apart until all that remained was a pile of red dust.
Alexi swallowed his spit and reached out to the handle, tugging it
open. The screech of the iron on the door frame echoed down the hall beyond
and made Alexi wince. He checked once more over his shoulder and then
stepped into the gloom beyond.
Dust and snow blanketed most things he saw. Sunlight streamed through
broken windows and through several holes in the roof of this once great
hall. Broken tables, chairs, and couches lay scattered about like
kindling. Everywhere his eyes fell, Alexi saw signs that others had used
the room recently. Discarded candles and summoning circles (that no doubt
failed to summon anything) had been painted on floors. He also saw bones
and teeth, things left over from the undead that prowled these corridors,
or from animal sacrifices meant to increase necromantic resources for a
greater effect. This room had no occupants now, probably helped by the fact
that the double doors at its end had been barred. He walked over to one of
the windows that overlooked the bluff on which the sprawling complex was
built to suss out his route through the abandoned palace.
Cold air and snowflakes pelted his face. He stared at the hillside that
he'd have to negotiate beyond those double doors. In places, the granite,
concrete, and glass structure still held onto its former glory. Stone
gargoyles completely enshrouded by thorn bushes and vines peeked out at the
snow-covered academy. The dilapidated wings of the complex had a kind of
majesty to them. He spotted broken glass, toppled columns, and shattered
walls. Roofs had collapsed in more than half of the areas between him and
his destination: the exit at the bottom of the hill about half a mile
away. A windswept courtyard barely visible through the limbs of leafless
aspen trees faced the Zandan river with its now iconic iron-wrought fence
and gate, chained to keep the undead from crossing its threshold. On this
side of the fence, the once grand gardens had gone completely
wild. Perennials had cracked the masonry and weeds choked every pot and
fountain.
Alexi walked over to the door and managed to free the bar so that he
could open the great doors. Peering beyond, he saw a hallway with many
unpaned windows staring emptily at the open sky. Snow, leaves, and garbage
left by students choked the floor and the plaster peeled from the
walls. Empty torch sconces showed where the corridor might have been lit a
long time ago.
Alexi turned left, keeping one eye at the trees and hillside visible
through those empty windows. He took two flights of stairs down, stepping
carefully to minimize footprints in the snow. Outside, he could no longer
see the tops of spruce and aspen; instead he looked at their thick
trunks. If he went to peer outside to get his bearings, he could see the
academy a hundred feet up, perched on its bluff that overlooked the
city. And after thirty minutes of walking, Alexi came to a large doorframe
with several holes in the walls to either side. Just beyond spread a
ghastly sight: a chamber filled with human bones. A large iron door hanging
on only one hinge, rusted with age and pitted from something that had
hammered on it from the far side, swung in the wind.
Gathering his courage, the dainty necromancer strode into the room,
kicking ribcages and femurs out of his way as he made for the opening on
the far side. He'd passed seemingly countless corridors that
afternoon. Most had a dilapidated beauty to them, others not so much. He
saw floors that had six-foot-wide cracks in them from parts of the building
pulling away, intent on crashing down the hillside at some point yet to
come. Explorers long before Alexi had fashioned makeshift bridges from flat
boards in order to cross in relative safety. However, others now gaped so
wide Alexi was forced to find a detour. The relatively fresh appearance of
these crevasses meant that the foundation on this side of the palace
continued to pull away from the rest of the structure. One room even
contained the tattered remains of some brilliant tapestries. Alexi stopped
to admire one that held an image of a golden hydra, but ran when the pile
started to move and giant rats appeared.
Thus far, however, he'd not come across something as grotesque as the
sight before him.
"This looks like the lair of some monster," Alexi uttered, looking to
his left and right. Teeth marks showed that something with a large bite
radius had chewed upon these bones. "Best not to attract any unneeded
attention here."
Above him, a domed skylight darkened as clouds scudded over the three
suns. Then a smell of rotten meat wafted to his nostrils. He raised his
eyes from the bone-strewn floor to see a huge shadow appear in the
doorway. A creature standing nine-feet tall stooped its head and walked
inside. Great swaths of rotten skin sloughed from its bones. One of its
eyes crawled with maggots; the other stared at Alexi, an orb floating in
bubbling yellow goo. It had massive legs swathed in rotten flesh. The
buzzing of carrion flies filled the air. Its huge mouth hung open,
revealing a rotten tongue and breath so foul it ushered from its throat in
a noxious green cloud. It's sharp, bloody teeth gleamed at him.
The monster roared and strode across the room toward him, crushing bone
to meal under its disgusting feet. As it entered, it wrenched free the iron
door from its remaining hinge, filling the hall with an unbearable
screech. Then it hurled the door at Alexi. The nimble necromancer easily
danced to one side as the monster's aim was a bit off. When it landed, it
crashed through a heap of bones creating a cacophony that Alexi was certain
was heard for miles around.
"Undead ogre...," Alexi said, trying to contain his panic. "You're a big
fella. I think I'll call you Dudley." Alexi backpedaled, keeping both eyes
on the zombie that intended to rip him to pieces.
The huge thing tread forward on stumpy legs and reached for him with
claws that ended in razor sharp talons. Black blood and foul ichor dripped
all over the floor.
Alexi stopped and straightened his spine. He held out both palms and
summoned the necromantic energy in the room. This caused the monster to
stop and look to the right and left as if aware of something that Alexi
couldn't see. But then it shrugged off the magic and continued to walk
forward.
Help me, Alexi directed his thoughts at the knot inside him.
And then Drago responded.
Pain filled his frail body but the power that coursed through Alexi's
veins made up for that weakness and steeled his skinny arms and legs with
the strength of the ancients. Alexi hurled all of that power into the huge
undead ogre, and halted the hulk in its tracks. Alexi felt the necromancy
extend from his fingers like tendrils in control of a puppet, filling the
limbs of the flesh and bone monstrosity until he could feel the singular
source that animated this thing and gave it unlife.
"You are mine to control," Alexi whispered, closing his fist around that
invisible gem of necromantic power. And then he lowered his arms. "Turn
around," he ordered the giant zombie.
The monster obeyed.
Alexi walked up to it, swatting the flies out of the way, and reaching
into a bag to pull out a perfume bottle. He wet the space under his
nostrils with it and then put it away.
"Follow me," he said. Then he walked past the monster and through the
door. Behind him the great thing plodded after, now as obedient as a dog to
its master.
Alexi swelled his chest in pride. What he'd done surpassed the
accomplishments of anyone enrolled at the school. In fact, he questioned
whether any of his professors could manage a feat like this and not be
winded.
He continued on his way, choosing to go down another corridor with a
broken ceiling and floor littered with trash. "Clomp Clomp Clomp" came the
footsteps of the zombie ogre, shaking plaster free of the damaged
walls. Here and there, the floor was smeared in thick swaths of old blood:
evidence of vast numbers of undead feeding. Up ahead, he heard the moaning
from the throats of at least a dozen undead, maybe more.
Through another doorway, Alexi came across a room split in half by the
sinking foundation which had buckled and shattered walls on either
side. Enormous wood columns held up a roof that had crashed down in places
revealing other floors both above and below. Straight down and across a
twenty-foot gap, hundreds of zombies moved back and forth in a kind of
sub-basement. The far side of the room held a staircase that went down to
that level with a few undead shambling here and there. But that's where he
needed to go to get out.
There's no way across this, Alexi thought. His gaze fell on a column
about two feet in diameter, made of ironwood under an area where the
ceiling had crumbled. It looked the right height, at least.
"Dudley, grab that pillar there and lay it across this gap," Alexi said.
The huge zombie walked over to the support, following the necromancer's
orders. With a massive heave of its shoulders (and some sloughing of its
rotten flesh) it yanked the column free. It lifted this thing (that must
weigh in the neighborhood of two-thousand pounds) and laid it across the
gap as if it were hefting a toothpick On the other side, more zombies
appeared at the top of the stairs, excited that food was coming their way.
"Guard this bridge. Let none pass except me," Alexi said.
It almost looked like the ogre nodded.
Satisfied, Alexi walked forward on the bridge. As he picked his path, he
looked down on the zombies below with amusement. They gazed up at his
skirt, clawing with their hands, hoping he would fall down there and feed
them for a moment. In front of him though, three zombies were rapidly
approaching.
Alexi hurled forth the necromantic strings he'd used to control the
ogre, and made puppets of these monsters. The effort left him feeling a
little more tired, as he'd exercised his powers quite a bit today. But he
turned them around to intercept three more headed his way. "Keep them at
bay until I leave."
Then he finished crossing the makeshift bridge and took off down the
stairs.
Twice more, he made puppets of zombies near the bottom, turning them
back on the host in the sub-basement that had begun to gather once they saw
Alexi was coming to them. In front of Alexi, the way out was now barred by
a row of hungry zombies clawing at the door. He extended his necromantic
strings, took control of ten, and marched them to either side. Then he
forced them to to deal with the much larger host encroaching upon his
backside. Now at the door, Alexi destroyed the padlocks with a single
utterance of "interficiem koro" and pushed them aside to wander into the
overgrown courtyard and thence unto the iron fence. Just beyond lay the
Zandan River and the city proper. He took a moment to breathe the fresh air
and to look up at the suns. Moans from inside the building alerted him to
the fact that all the zombies he controlled might soon be overwhelmed.
I guess I should deal with that, he thought.
Alexi turned and closed the doors, using the fallen chains to wrap
around the handles. When finished, he stepped back and cast an undead ward
upon the doors. "Et non praeteribit," Alexi said, and a symbol appeared on
the frame. "That should last for a week or so. Plenty of time for my
purposes." Indeed, he already saw it worked as the zombies on the far side
backed away from the portal, shielding their faces with their naked rotting
limbs.
Then Alexi walked across the weed-strewn courtyard to the iron gate. He
was so skinny that by removing his cloak, he could squeeze between the
bars, but his skirt did not escape unscathed.
"Bother," he said, donning his cloak once more.
Most of the buildings on this side of the gate lay empty and dark, with
shattered windows and dilapidated roofs. But a hundred yards or so further
down the avenue, blocked off by a wooden barricade, the roads of Zanda
teemed with people going about their business. Smoke spewed from thousands
of chimneys, and carriages carried nobles to afternoon luncheons, rolling
by without so much as a look in Alexi's direction.
He strode downhill, keeping to the sides of the road just in case an
errant eye went looking, and then slipped out from behind the barricade and
into the traffic flowing alongside the river with none the wiser. Alexi
hailed a carriage, climbed inside, and said, "Take me to a shop called
`Agony' on the Street of Perversions. It's in the Hollows."
"Yes, young miss," the driver in a salmon doublet said before closing
the door.
The man climbed atop the carriage. Soon the "clop clop" of horse's
hooves and the steady roll of the carriage wheels found Alexi daydreaming
as he fancied himself one day enjoying the fruits of high society thanks to
his burgeoning powers.
"I will be the most powerful necromancer in the world," Alexi said to
himself. "And all stupid worthless men like Dudley will rue the day they
ever crossed me."
*****
Chapter Twenty-Four is now available to read at
http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/discussion-board-for.html under the label
"The Orb of Winter" if you care to read ahead.
Are there any artists out there willing to draw some pics for my story? If
so, please email me.
If you go to my website directly from this posting, you will want to begin
with "CHAPTER EIGHT" in the forums.